The general continual rise in fitness awareness has led to an appreciation of the benefits of running for cardiovascular fitness. Along with this increasing popularity of fitness, sports and running over the past two-and-one-half decades, there has been explosive growth of the aquatic fitness and water rehabilitation therapy over the past ten years.
Approximately ten years ago, Glenn McWaters invented a water running vest, and since that time running has been increasingly popular. Many have now turned to water running as a training and fitness adjunct to enhance or maintain running efficiency and performance. Running in an upright (vertical) position in the water alleviates up to 90% of the effects of gravity (at shoulder level immersion)on the joints of the body. This greatly diminishes the impact placed upon the articular surfaces of the lower extremity joints (e.g. hips, knees, and ankles), as well as the spine, muscles and ligaments, in particular.
There are known in the art several types of water running shoes. One such design, found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,284, is a shoe with concentric flotation dishes on the underside of the shoes. These shoes allow the user to walk on the surface of the water. However, the concentric dishes extend much wider than the shoe itself to provide an area sufficient to give one stability on top of the water, but, the large surface area prevents the user from keeping his/her feet close enough to allow walking or running in a safe, functional and, biomechanically correct position.
Another device known in the art is the Hydro-Tone.TM. water resistive training device which attaches via a rubber boot to the lower legs. There are hard plastic plates longitudinally oriented along each tibia shin of the lower legs. The plate provides an increased resistance to motion through the water, because it increases the surface area presented to the water of the lower legs. A limitation of the Hydro-Tone.TM. system is that the plastic plate is wide and the user's legs must be spread apart. The legs cannot be held in the usual and preferred anatomical running position. Another limitation is that the hard plastic has protruding fins that can bruise or cut into the skin of the opposite leg during water running exercises or water sports.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a water training system where the user is able to train/exercise in a correct biomechanical position(s).
It is another object of the present invention to provide an fitness system for water running, swimming, and exercising where the user may assume various levels of immersion.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an adjustable buoyancy shoe-like device to accommodate different users and different levels of exercise intensities. Hereinafter, shoe device is defined as an apparatus that attaches to the human foot or ankle having attachment facilities to connect to the tether. The show device includes the facility for an adjustable buoyancy mechanism either as part of the shoe device or as a separate attachment.